Sun Constellation System

{{Short description|Computing system}}

Sun Constellation System is an open petascale computing environment introduced by Sun Microsystems in 2007.

Main hardware components

  • Sun Blade 6048 Modular System
  • [http://www.sun.com/x6275 Sun Blade X6275]
  • [http://www.sun.com/x6270 Sun Blade X6270]
  • [http://www.sun.com/blades Sun Blade 6000 System]
  • [http://www.sun.com/products/networking/infiniband.jsp Sun Datacenter Switch 3456]
  • [http://www.sun.com/X4540 Sun Fire X4540]
  • [http://www.sun.com/servers/cooling Sun Cooling Doors (5200,5600)]

Software stack

Services

  • [http://www.sun.com/service/dcexpress/ Sun Datacenter Express Services ]

Production systems

File:TACC-Ranger-cluster.jpg

Ranger at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) was the largest production Constellation system. Ranger had 62,976 processor cores in 3,936 nodes and a peak performance of 580 TFlops.{{cite web

|url = http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/resources/hpcsystems/#ranger

|title = TACC > HPC Systems

|accessdate = 2007-12-13

|publisher = The University of Texas at Austin

|url-status = dead

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20090801102108/http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/resources/hpcsystems/#ranger

|archivedate = 2009-08-01

}}{{cite web

| url = https://blogs.oracle.com/marchamilton/entry/more_ranger_facts_and_figures

| title = More Ranger Facts and Figures

| accessdate = 2016-06-18

| publisher = Sun Microsystems

}} Ranger was the 7th most powerful TOP500 supercomputer in the world at the time of its introduction.{{cite web

|url=http://top500.org/lists/2008/11

|title=TOP500 List - November 2008

|date=2010-08-11

|publisher=TOP500.Org}}

After 5 years of service at TACC, it was dismantled and shipped to South Africa, Tanzania, and Botswana to help foster HPC development in Africa.{{cite web

|url=https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/ranger-supercomputer-begins-new-life

|title=Ranger Supercomputer Begins New Life

|publisher=The University of Texas at Austin

|date=2014-07-14

|accessdate=2016-05-04

|first=Jorge

|last=Salazar

}}

A number of smaller Constellation systems are deployed at other supercomputer centers, including the University of Oslo.{{cite web

| url = https://blogs.oracle.com/simons/entry/hpc_consortium_university_of_oslo

| title = HPC Consortium: University of Oslo

| date = 2008-06-17

| accessdate = 2016-06-18

| publisher = Sun Microsystems

}}

References

{{reflist}}